


Keep me concealed just like I was a weapon

by 2iide_by_2iide (princess_bubblegum)



Category: X-Ray & Vav (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Drama, Gen, Kidnapping, Major Character Injury, Threats of Violence, Torture, WARNINGS:, but dont get me wrong this fic is not completely serious i tried for a somewhat humorous tone, holy shit, more warnings to come with later chapters, what have I done?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-04-17 12:09:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4666020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princess_bubblegum/pseuds/2iide_by_2iide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically, how they would convince Mogar to stop working with the Mad King. Includes many kidnappings, reckless decisions, unwilling team-ups and 'negotiation' techniques.</p><p>Canon compliant until after season 2 episode 5, it's an AU now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I want these words to make things right

**Author's Note:**

> Story and chapter titles are all fall out boy lyrics, points if you can guess which song they're from without looking it up.
> 
> I did some editing (which is still ongoing), hopefully, to improve this story a bit.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Vav is _not_ an ambassador, Hilda is fucking tired and Ray gets hit with a crown on his crown.

Glancing around frantically, Vav knew he couldn’t call for help from the other two, they were just barely holding off the Mad King. But getting cornered by Mogar wasn’t exactly his cup of tea either.  
“Wait, please, please just hear me out!” Vav began to plead as a last resort.  
“Why should I?” He growled not stopping his movement, closing in.  
“I really do want to help you find your mother!!” Mogar froze eyeing him suspiciously.  
“What do you know about her!?” as the sword inched a little closer, Vav could feel the sweat dripping down the back of his neck.  
“N-nothing, really, I just think you should know you can’t trust the Mad King!”  
“He told me you were only trying to impede my mission.” The blade was pressing into his neck now. “And I told him I would kill the colored ones.”  
“Y-you mean blue and green…?” Vav slowly pointed from himself to X-Ray. Mogar only narrowed his eyes and the sharp look there was enough to give Vav his answer.  
“Oh--Okay, but just, just let me tell you my side and then if you still don’t believe me you can k-kill me or whatever…”  
Mogar seemed to mull this over for a moment before nodding his assent.  
“So do you just want me to tell you right now? ...Or go somewhere more private…?” Vav rambled nervously.  
Mogar hummed thoughtfully, “private…”  
“Y-yeah?”  
Mogar, grinning now, nodded once again then brought the hilt of his sword down quickly, hitting Vav solidly in the temple. He crumpled to the ground, vision fuzzing out into blackness as he passed out.  
  
“RAY! Get out of my shot!!” Hilda shouted angrily from her position on the roof.  
“I can hit this guy, just lemme work here!!” He shouted back. She sighed lowering her gun a little, watching him dance around the Mad King while he was laughing maniacally was probably the most fun she was gonna have today anyway. She refused to let her thoughts wander to all the meetings she had to get to, and instead focused on how Ray’s aim seemed to be improving. Each of his shots was landing close to Mad King’s feet, leaving a smoldering spot on the roof. And yeah that’s probably a safety hazard…  _Despite_  Ray’s improved shooting, judging from the way he was grinning, it seemed like the Mad King was just toying with them at this point.  
“Hilda!” ORF zoomed over to her, calling as frantically as her voice programming allowed.  
“What is it ORF?” She turned to the little robot to see her motioning to the small figure of Mogar carrying off Vav’s limp body. Hilda stared in horror as the man jumped away, from rooftop to rooftop.  
“RAY!” Her voice boomed, “it was a set-up; he’s been stalling us! Mogar has Vav!!”  
“WHAT!?” Ray turned to look at her, throwing off his concentration and was promptly hit in the head with a crown (again).  
“HAHAHAHAHA! Tata~!” the Mad King called, he slipped into the stairwell access door, slamming it shut after him.  
Hilda growled in frustration, looking from where Ray was passed out on the roof, to the shrinking silhouette of Mogar and Vav. Finally huffing in resignation, she ordered ORF; “Go after them, if you find where they go come back and tell me so we can regroup! Don’t engage!!”  
ORF nodded, quickly zooming off after Mogar. Hilda sighed after her and moved over to Ray’s pitiful figure, pulling him up with one of his arms around her shoulder and hers around his torso, she began to drag him to the stairwell door.  
  
Vav squinched his eyes open, groaning at the onslaught of light and pain. He moved to raise a hand to his throbbing head, only to find his hands were bound with ropes.  
“What happened?” he moaned, squinting at his surroundings, he jumped belatedly as he noticed Mogar standing in the corner. The man blinked at him looking tired. Vav’s slow moving mind realized he might have been sleeping while standing over there.  
“Were you asleep?” Vav voiced his thoughts. Mogar said nothing and as Vav came too, the pain in his head spiked, so he closed his eyes to shield them from the light of the single candle in the room. The floorboards creaked and Vav cracked his eyes open just long enough to see Mogar had come to stand beside him.  
“Sit up.” Mogar finally spoke.  
“Wha--?” Vav cautiously opened his eyes again.  
“Now!” The man’s voice hardened and this time, Vav moved without question.  
For a moment, with him still feeling weak and being without the use of his arms, he struggled to sit up. Then Mogar’s hand came to his back, pushing him up. Awkwardly, Vav moved his elbows under him to support himself. Mogar's other hand came up, holding a small bowl full of greenish-brown liquid.  
“Drink it.”  
Vav eyed the bowl for a second but not wanting to test Mogar’s patience again he drank it without complaint. Surprisingly, the strange fluid was not a putrid as it appeared.  
As he finished the last swallow, Mogar pulled away. “What was that?”  
“Help your head.” He motioned vaguely towards his head, before sitting down tiredly.  
“Why are you helping me?” Vav said oddly, the last thing he could remember was Mogar knocking him out.  
“You said you would talk, it’s hard to talk with pain.”  
Vav laid back down and realized there had been a pillow under his head this whole time. Looking at Mogar wonderingly, Vav soon realized whatever Mogar had given him did not work instantly, he shut his eyes again and willed the pain to go away.  
  
Hilda awkwardly tucked Ray in on his couch, with the help of his mother.  
“Um, thank you, Ms. Narvaez… I’m gonna go now, I think you can handle this…” Hilda hastily slipped out of the apartment door, waving as she went. Quickly striding to the elevator she jabbed the button and stepped into the elevator feeling drained. In the sliver of peace the short ride offered, she took a moment to marvel at how quickly things had gone to shit. Sighing in frustration with the current suckiness of this situation, Hilda headed back to her apartment, internally saying screw it to her job.  
  
ORF zoomed off. If she could just...! The sun, reflecting off her screens, was making it extremely hard to see… She couldn’t stop, though, she kept moving in the direction she had seen Mogar leaving. She had reached city limits by the time she decided to stop, and the sun was already starting to move past the horizon. She knew she couldn’t let Hilda down so she moved to the streets.  
“Have you seen a shirtless man in a bear-hood carrying around a limp man in blue spandex and a cape?” she asked the question countless times all around the city. Most just responded with a solemn head shake until she got to a cocky kid late at night in an alley.  
“Eeh, not really sure, maybe some cash can refresh my memory?”  
She shifted form and pushed him up against the wall.  
“Listen, you little punk,” she spoke deadly cheerful, “I don’t have time for this, so either you know something or you’re not of use to me...” she finished threateningly.  
“Al-alright!! I saw them heading for the woods, that way!”  
She let the kid go, nodding happily as she shifted back to orb form, “thank you for your cooperation.” She turned and flew off to where the kid had pointed, leaving him shaking in the alley behind her.  
  
By the time Vav’s head had stopped aching and he could handle light again, Mogar appeared to be asleep.  
“Mogar!?” Vav whispered carefully, not wanting to wake him if he was sleeping.  
Vav waited in complete silence for a few seconds to see if he would say something but he seemed to be fast asleep.  
‘Huh, he’s actually pretty cute when he’s relaxed, much less lethal…’ Vav thought, smiling slightly. He then focused on the room around him, taking in his surroundings fully now that he had the chance. It was mostly wood like the tree house they burned down, Vav cringed a little at that thought. There was only a desk and chair on the other side of the room, which he could barely see because it was behind the bed he was lying on. Mogar was leaned against the wall beside the bed, asleep, he seemed to be healing also, because the bandage was gone from his torso and there was only a scab left behind. The candle sat on the table beside the bed, along with the bowl. Giving the room another once-over, Vav decided that was about it, so he closed his eyes again, deciding to wait until Mogar woke up.  
  
Music from the Legend of Zelda flooded Hilda’s dreams, she slowly she blinked awake as she realized the music was real and it was her ringtone. Sitting up groggily she picked up her phone just as the call was over.  
Looking at the time, she frowned at the glaring 3:38 AM and a missed call from Ray. She was just about to call him back when her phone began to ring again. Swiping the answer button she put the phone to her ear.  
“What?” She answered, exasperated.  
“What happened to Vav?” His voice came through desperately and her eyes widened as she remembered he had no idea what had happened.  
“Oh… I really don’t know yet. My best guess? Mad King was stalling us so Mogar could grab Vav and get some kinda leverage maybe? I still haven’t heard back from ORF yet, I hope she’s ok…”  
“So you-you think Vav is ok?” Ray nervously questioned.  
“Well, he’s definitely not dead.”  
“Wow, real reassuring…” Ray regained a little of his snark then. He paused, before voicing his worries, “but, um how are you so sure…?”  
“Because, if they wanted to kill him they would’ve done it.”  
  
Searching the woods at night in the rain was not an improvement from looking for a tiny figure across rooftops in the blinding sun, the opposite in fact… But, what could one ask for when looking for a kidnapped friend?  
ORF had her night vision on, moving stealthily through the woods. The pouring rain was making her screens blur but otherwise, the water didn't affect her. She was looking for anything  _suspicious_ … a bird house, a weird squirrel, anything.  
While she continually scanned most everything around her, from trees to passing wildlife, she was not disappointed when she found an artificial tree covering the entrance to a whole mess of underground tunnels. As she prepared to scan for body signatures, the tree made a quiet beep and buzzed with electricity as it sent out an electromagnetic pulse. She was just able to send out her automatic distress signal before her systems went offline.


	2. I said, I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mogar wakes up from his nappy time feeling grumpy, Hilda is awesome and everyone should probably listen to each other more often.

Mogar lifted his head slowly, blinking in the soft light of a low-burning candle. Why was he sitting on the floor? Glancing up he saw Vav still tied to the bed, asleep.  
“How long have I been asleep!?” he interrogated the still air. Pulling himself up and staring down at his fists, he was enraged with himself for letting his guard down.  
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe a few hours…” He jumped at the sound of Vav’s slow reply. He looked up to see the man lazily staring at him.  
"You were awake?” He glared down at him in confusion.  
Giving him an odd look, Vav nodded.  
“Why didn’t you wake me up!?” He demanded.  
Continuing to look surprised, Vav responded, “you looked like you needed the sleep…”  
“I don’t have time for sleep, Mogar can’t relax!!”  
Vav raised his eyebrows a little higher, “um, sorry…”  
“Just,” Mogar huffed, plopping back down, “tell me what you have to say.”  
“Um, well, where do I start…?”  
“Why did you burn down my house?” Mogar glared at him harshly.  
“Yeah… ok, a little backstory first… Basically, it all started when we met Miss. Hilda and she gave us some awesome gadgets…”

What was it with her sleep getting interrupted? Hilda cracked her eyes open, squinting at the glow of her beeping phone. Her eyes widened when she remembered that sound meant ORF was in trouble. Jerking up from the couch she checked where the location was on the alert.  
She started to get ready when she had the thought she should call Ray. Flipping through her contacts she found Ray's contact and clicked the call button.  
“Hey.” He sounded exhausted like he'd refused to sleep since he'd passed out.  
“Got a distress signal from ORF in the woods, I’m going to investigate, if I don’t call by…” she checked the time, “12 PM call Rusty for help. Bye!”  
“Wait, you sho--!” She hung up quickly, she really didn’t have time to argue with him on this.  
She grabbed her gun, pulling on sneakers and she was out the door.

“...Then we kinda accidentally destroyed the city, so it didn’t go that well, but after that Hilda got fired and needed our help getting back ORF who was like her childhood best friend, like Ray is for me. So we did that and saved the day, which was awesome. But oh, yeah the Mad King was the CEO of Monarch Labs at that point and we stopped him he wanted to kill everybody. But it just got worse from there actually. He was working with this pirate who stole the key to the city, which let him mind control people and then the Mad King had been making an amplification antenna thingy for the Corpirate to mind control everybody in town, except me and Ray because we aren’t smart enough to influence I guess…? But, anyway, everyone was controlled for like weeks, oh! Except Rusty, he had a tinfoil hat! So we went on a stealth mission to save Miss. Hilda and then save the whole town. Yeah, there was helicopter and explosions, it was pretty awesome and there was a parade in our honor after that, and basically everyone loved us… and then you came in.”  
Vav paused for a moment, taking several deep breaths. He apparently had not been breathing during that whole spiel...  
Mogar sighed, tapping his fingers impatiently. Vav was still recovering his breathing, making the atmosphere all the more awkward with the only sounds being his loud breath and the tapping. Finally, Mogar elected to stand up, dusting off his pants, choosing now to lean against the wall. He crossed his arms and waited for him to go on. Vav coughed, clearing his throat, he started talking again.  
“Ok, where was I? Yeah, you. You came and sort-of started stealing our thunder, which Ray got pretty pissed about… And don’t tell anyone I said this but I think it’s because he’s got abandonment issues.... Yeah, so Ray and I went to the paper after we saw the article about us and Ash told us we should find out more about you so we came up with a plan to learn more about you so we could get rid of you. I know how that sounds but really we just wanted you to leave the city. We didn’t know you wanted to find your mother! We didn’t really know anything…” Vav trailed off for a moment, disappointed in himself.  
“Anyway, after that, some ridiculous bullshit happened and I _really_ don’t wanna get into, but, just know that it involved slash fiction. After that was my date-- _meeting_ , I mean meeting! With Ash, yeah. But as you probably know that went sideways… And I really did try to get Ray to see that you weren’t the bad guy but he just wouldn’t listen.” Vav paused again sighing in frustration, “then we went to a private eye to help us find you so we could find who you were looking for and then you wouldn’t have to look anymore--”  
Mogar growled cutting him off at this point, “you think I would know less about how to find her than you? You think you could do better? You think I haven’t been scouring every corner of that _disgusting_ city looking for her?”  
“N-no, it’s just, sometimes you need help…” Vav looked away from him.  
“Just--!" he cut himself off, letting out an angry breath, "keep talking…”  
“So, yeah we eventually found the trail of your blood and found your tree house, we came up, looking for clues--”  
Mogar made a disturbed sound, then interrupted again, angrily calling out, “that is what you call help!!?”  
“We really didn’t mean to do any damage we just wanted answers--!”  
Mogar pushed himself off the wall, leaning over Vav threateningly he growled out, “but you did, didn’t you? I can’t listen to this anymore.”  
“But! Wait, you said you would listen to my side of the story--!!”  
“No. Mad King is calling for a meeting with Mogar, I will be back.” Mogar turned away, pulling his hood up.  
“W-wait!” Vav pulled against his bindings, “you’re not gonna tell him about me, right!?”  
Mogar looked back at him emotionlessly, “about what you’ve said?” he looked forward again, “no, not yet…” He opened the door, stepping out, slamming it behind him.

“C’mon, c’mon…” Hilda muttered as she followed the GPS, trekking through the mud as she headed to the spot where ORF sent her distress signal. The device in her hand beeped and she stopped in a spot directly in front of a tree.  
“Oookaay…” she did a quick scan and made a face, “well, that’s not a tree…” She pulled on her gloves, leaning close to inspect it.  
She pressed her hand along the trunk, trying to find a maintenance panel or something. Suddenly the tree beeped and Hilda knew it was trying to shock her. She laughed a little, flexing her fingers in her rubber gloves.  
“Bingo,” she spoke to herself, grinning, as she popped open an access tunnel. She pulled back out her tablet, hoping to get some sort of map for this labyrinth, but it was dead. The 'tree' must've sent out an EMP with that electricity. She frowned, getting even more worried as she climbed into the hole and started on her way down. Looks like she was going in blind.

“I’m here!! Stop that infuriating noise!” Mogar jumped down into the room where the Mad King stood.  
He pulled the whistle from his lips, smirking at his accomplice, “well, I needed to make sure you heard me.”  
“I certainly did,” Mogar grumbled under his breath, rubbing his ringing ears. “What do you want?” He continued louder.  
“I just wanted to say good work out there yesterday. Not exactly what I had in mind for that encounter but it was very good; you saw the chance and you took it…” The Mad King paced around as he spoke, Mogar didn't move a muscle, following his every move. His hand movements flowed along with his words, he paused, turning slowly to look at Mogar.  
“Do you want me to start threatening the others with that blue-caped fool? Or try to lay down clues to use him as bait?”  
“No, I’m still trying to get information out of him,” Mogar replied, a little stiffly.  
“Oh, how much do you really think _he_ would know?” He asked scathingly.  
Mogar said nothing, and he went on, “well, anyway, if you need some help with that we have some lovely _techniques_ here.”  
“I can handle it.”  
“Well, _good_ , then.” he smiled a serene smile, all but the hateful glint in his eyes, “you might as well go, I have some visitors coming, very soon, I suspect. She should be a _delight_. Why don’t you handle your situation and I handle mine?”  
Mogar nodded, climbing back up to the rafters, he climbed out, but lingered in the vent for some reason. He had a feeling he knew who these ‘visitors’ were, he wanted to see how this went down.

Hilda switched her glasses to night vision mode, slipping through the corridors. She peeked around the corner, hearing voices. She then saw two guards talking to each other.  
“Nobody really comes around here, how did a robot get in here?”  
“Who knows, the boss is probably scheming something…”  
Their voices were stiff, this was rehearsed. But not rehearsed enough apparently…  
So, the Mad King was trying to set a trail for her, using ORF as bait… But what about Vav? Was he even here?  
“Into the vents it is…” She muttered to herself, whipping out a grappling hook.

“Ray… Ray, you need to calm down.” The kid standing in front of him was talking at lightning speed. Rambling on about kidnappings and the Mad King and Mogar.  
“I can’t understand what you’re saying! RAY!” HE grabbed onto his shoulders, shaking him slightly. He finally stopped, looking at Rusty like he was about to cry.  
“Now, what happened? _Slowly_.” Rusty kept his hands on his shoulders, giving him a reassuring stare. Ray took a few breaths calming down for a moment.  
“Ok. Mogar kidnapped Vav. So Hilda sent ORF after them, but then ORF sent out a distress signal, so Hilda went to investigate!! And she’s going alone!!!”  
“Whoa! Nobody bothered to tell me Vav was kidnapped!?” He pulled away, feeling a bit offended.  
“Sorry, it was just like… It seems like today and yesterday are the same days, to be honest…” Ray wrung his hands together, fidgeting anxiously.  
“Ok, ok. Whatever, we’re gonna need to go get some help.” Rusty grabbed his arm and started to move down the alley, but Ray pulled him back.  
“Rusty! I have to go after Hilda!”  
“She shouldn’t have gone alone, kid, don’t make the same mistake!”  
“No, if I don’t go now I’ll lose the trail, sorry Rusty!” Ray turned and ran across the street, getting lost to Rusty in the bustle of the city.  
“Goddammit, why are these kids so brainless!!” Rusty turned and ran the other way, he was gonna need help, and he didn’t have too many options.

“You can come out, I know you’re there.” Hilda’s eyes widened at the Mad King’s voice.  
“I knew you would come for your precious _friend_ , and I had no doubt you would soon find this room.”  
“Fine.” She jumped down from the vent, making sure to keep her gun steady.  
“It’s _so_ good to see you again.”  
“Where’s ORF?” She really didn’t have time for games.  
“Oh, I took care of that little pest.” His smile was like a snake curling up for a nap.  
“Please,” she scoffed, “you’ll never be able to control her, not while I’m still around.”  
“I know, that’s why I destroyed her.” He looked completely at peace as he waved his hand and a light turned on beside her.  
Hilda whipped around, a look of horror on her face. The broken remains of the little robot sat scattered in the spotlight, all with the guards acting and this cue, this was just a show, but _why_? Why would he do this?  
Hilda could barely breathe, she turned back to him, leveling her gun directly at the Mad King’s heart.  
“You monster,” she whispered with tears in her eyes.  
“ _Oooh_ , now, name-calling isn’t nice,” he pouted at her, still smirking.  
“I’ll kill you,” her voice was low as a tear slid down her face.  
“No,” he shook his head, grinning triumphantly, “I don’t think you will.”  
She tightened her grip on the gun, finger inching towards the trigger, “you’re thinking wrong then.”  
“No, see, it’s not in the cards for you,” he stepped to the side, coming closer as he moved around her towards the light. She kept her gun on him until two henchmen dragged something-- someone into the light. The Mad King leaned closer to her, whispering in her ear, “I _have_ all the cards.”  
Bruised and bloodied, Ray lifted his head, “I’m so sorry, Hilda.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, Mad king, stop italicizing _everything_.
> 
> (Also, Idk how EMP's work... don't judge me.)


	3. I'm not gonna go home alone, where did the party go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Vav finally gets outta the house, we witness some awesome trios and the rescuing kinda goes both ways.

_Knock, knock, knock, knock knock-knock_.  
“Wha-- What is it, who’s there!?”  
“ _Vav_?” a voice answered back.  
“Rusty!!” Vav grinned in delight.  
There was a bang on the door and Vav squeezed his eyes shut as they tried to break it down. There was a huge crack and thud as the door fell.  
“Rusty!” Vav called out again, opening his eyes, he paused, “... and Mr. Coal?”  
“Eehh, he was the only person I could get for help, believe me, I didn’t want to.” Rusty side-eyed the man, then knelt down beside the bed. “Kid, what happened?” He raised his eyebrows at the ropes, then flicked out a pocket knife.  
“Er, call it a negotiation gone sideways.” Vav watched as Rusty cut the ropes, reveling at his one free hand.  
“I looked on in horror, a kidnapping and three missing now. When would this--” Rusty interrupted Coal’s monologuing.  
“Would you quit that!?” Rusty sighed in frustration, as he continued cutting the ropes.  
“Did you say three missing!?” Vav asked in alarm.  
“Yeah... “ Rusty answered, “ORF came looking for you, went missing, then Hilda went looking for her and then Ray… And it just snowballed.”  
“So the Mad King has them!!”  
Rusty looked at him in confusion, “yeah... and Mogar too, ya know the one who kidnapped you?”  
“Mogar’s not that bad a guy! He’s actually considering what I have to say, that’s why he kidnapped me!!” Vav explained desperately.  
Rusty glanced back at Coal like _'Do you get_ any _of this?'_ , but shook his head, letting it go for now. “Well no matter who’s got 'em, we’ve gotta get ‘em back.”  
Vav nodded determinedly, “what’s the plan?”

“If you shoot me, they shoot him. Simple as that.” The Mad King smiled as he circled her.  
She stared down at the ground, feeling defeated.  
“You should put the gun down too… He’s already badly hurt, we wouldn’t want to make it any worse.” One of the guards stomped down on his foot and Ray screamed in pain.  
“Isn’t that the broken foot?” the Mad King asked cheerily and a guard nodded, “ _yes_.” He drew out the word, mouth curling.  
Hand shaking, she slowly set the gun down.  
“Good girl.” He patted her head patronizingly.  
She grabbed his wrist, “don’t touch me,” she spoke low and threatening.  
“That is not how royalty is to be treated.” he reprimanded, though he never stopped smiling. “Tie her up, someone.”  
Two more guards walked in and started to roughly bind her hands and feet with rope.  
“You know now that I have you two, Vav is no use to us once he has no more information to give… I should just call Mogar right now and tell him to kill the boy shouldn’t I?”  
“ _NO!_ ” Hilda yelled and Ray sobbed.   
“Gag her.”

“There’s got to be an entrance to a base or some kind of Headquarters around here, most likely in this cabin.” Coal stated seriously and started to scour the surrounding scenery.  
“No, there’s nothing in here. When Mogar left to meet with the Mad King he left through the door.” Vav walked out through the empty door frame.  
“Maybe it’s around here somewhere…?” He crawled across the ground, getting mud all over his hands and knees, looking for clues, he stopped as the other two came out as well, “look! Mogar’s footprints!!”  
Rusty helped him up and they followed the tracks to a manhole cover. Coal and Rusty, knelt down, struggling to lift it.  
They finally pulled it open just as Vav leaned down to help.  
“ _How the fuck_ \--” Rusty gritted out the words as they shuffled to the side to and dropped the manhole cover with a thunk, managing to keep clear of any limbs.  
Rubbing his back mournfully, Rusty moved over to where Vav was staring blankly down into the hole.  
He put an arm around him in concern, "it'll be ok, kid. We'll get them back."  
Vav said nothing, but nodded while still gazing down into the darkness.

Staring through the slats of the vent cover, Mogar was frozen with indecision. These people burned down his home and he _couldn’t_ trust them, but what he was seeing was just plain wrong.  
The Mad King walked out of the room, waving lazily behind him. “Just leave them here, it’s not like they can do much, but grab the gun and guard the door!”  
They walked out and slammed the door. Seeing his chance, Mogar carefully lifted the vent cover away and--  
Suddenly a piercing sound interrupted him and he dropped the cover, making a huge clanging noise. But he was too busy trying to block out the piercing sound to care.  
“What was that!?” the guard ran into the room.  
Hilda had been looking up at the vent as he'd opened the cover and saw Mogar clutching his ears in pain. Her eyes widened as the guard ran in, not really thinking in that split second about why he might be in the vents, she started kicking anything metal, the floor, scattered junk in the room, boxes.  
“You! Would you just shut up! It’s not like anyone can hear you!!” The guard yelled at her before walking back out once she had stopped.  
The whistle had stopped in that time (he would whistle again in a few minutes or so, that’s what he always did) and Mogar jumped down now, making sure to be silent as he did.

Crawling through vents with three people was cramped and risky.  
“Ok, so now we just have to find whatever room they’re in,” Vav whispered.  
“I wish I had the layout of this place.” Rusty murmured.  
Vav nodded in agreement, before halting abruptly, “Wait, wait guys stop!” he stared out the vent opening down to where two guards stood talking.  
“Do I really have to switch with Phil? I really don’t want the midnight shift, plus I heard those two were making trouble _already_.” one guard whined.  
“Yeah well we don't always get what we want, now do we?" the other sneered at his subordinate, then his voice hardened, "Get down to 12B.” he ordered then slipped into one of the doors.  
The guy huffed and turned the corner.  
“C’mon guys we gotta follow him!!” Vav whispered urgently, kicking out the vent cover then slow-mo-ing it before it could hit the ground and make a sound. He jumped out, then Rusty came down, then Coal. Vav hurried around the corner and the other two followed suit.

Mogar unsheathed his sword and Hilda and Ray both shrunk away from the blade. He swung down... and their ropes were cut.  
Hilda quickly pulled off her gag and stood up, “Why are you here?? And why are you helping us? Is this a trick!? Where is Vav?!” She whisper-yelled.  
“Y-yeah, what’s--” Ray tried to stand as well, leaning on his good foot, only to get dizzy and almost crumple back down, luckily Hilda caught him.  
“You’re losing too much blood,” she looked down at him in concern, then whipped her head back towards Mogar, “answer the questions!” she demanded.  
He sheathed his sword again and faced them to answer, “Vav is safe, and I have been listening to his story,” his eyes shifted away from them then, “and though I still do not trust you, I know that the Mad man only wants to destroy. He cannot be trusted. And…” he trailed off for a moment, looking to her then glancing over to ORF’s remains, “no one’s family should be torn apart…”  
Hilda’s breath left her again as she remembered ORF in all this madness.  
“Here, hold him.” she shoved Ray into Mogar’s arms and he raised his eyebrows slightly as she hurried off.  
“You better not drop me,” Ray moaned, lying limp in his arms.  
Hilda desperately gathered ORF into her hoodie which she fashioned into a makeshift bag. Clutching it to her chest she stood back up and turned to them again.  
“Ok, how do we--?” she stopped as Mogar suddenly stumbled and squinched his eyes shut. He managed to regain himself without dropping Ray, he just gritted his teeth and worked through it.  
“What the hell was that?” Ray muttered, looking up at him blearily.  
“He is calling for me,” Mogar muttered lowly.  
“What? How?” Hilda stared at him in confusion.  
“It’s a whistle.” He answered simply.  
“A whistle… Wait, can you hear a dog whistle??” She stared at him in bewilderment.  
“Can we maybe, figure this out later?” Ray asked, his voice getting softer. He started coughing loudly then, spitting out some blood.  
“Yeah, how do we get out of here?” Hilda turned to Mogar.  
He was quiet for a moment, looking around the room.  
“We cannot take the vents with a load.” Mogar started off.  
“Hey…” Ray objected, even while he could barely lift his head.  
He continued on, “we will have to leave through the halls, you take my sword.”  
“I don’t know how to fight with a sword!”  
“Swing it at them,” Mogar said flatly.  
“Oh, that helps _so_ much.” She stepped closer to him then and gave her bag to Ray. “Focus on this, ok?” She looked down at him in concern.  
“Yeah, I gotcha.” he gave her a weak smile in return.  
She reached around him and carefully pulled Mogar’s sword out of its sheath.  
“Jesus, this thing is heavy.” She muttered to herself, then broke the door down.

“Which way did he go!?” Vav asks in a panic, looking down each hallway.  
“I think... it was--” Rusty’s reply was cut off by another guard.  
“Hey!! You’re not supposed to be in here!”  
“Well, this way it is then!” Rusty yelled, running away from the guard, Vav slowed the guard down as they ran away.  
“Wait,” Coal muttered as they neared a corner, he peeked around and motioned for them to look as well.  
They saw the two guards talking and the other was starting to walk off. They were just about to swoop in when there was a huge crash and Hilda jumped out of the broken door, screaming, and brandishing a big ass sword.  
The three stared in silence for a moment as Hilda rained carnage down on the two guards, knocking both of them out. Vav jumped out, rounding the corner.  
“Miss. Hilda!!” He grinned calling out to her.  
She looked over, breathing heavily, “Vav!!?” She smiled back.  
He ran over to her, the others following. She pulled him into a hug, dropping the sword for a moment. Then she pulled back, eyes widening, she turned him towards Mogar, “You’ve gotta help Ray!”  
“Mogar!” He looked in surprise at the man standing with Ray in his arms, “h-how can I help Ray?” He stared down in horror at the barely conscious, badly beaten man, looking up at him.  
“H-hey Vav…” He couldn't even open his swollen eye and his teeth were tinted pink from blood as he smiled painfully.  
“You have to slow down the bleeding!” Hilda spoke urgently, picking up the sword again.  
“Oh! Ok.” he nodded focusing in on Ray, putting all his power into slowing him down.  
“Let’s get out of here.” They started moving, all making sure to keep Ray and Vav safe.  
“There’s most likely more guards up ahead.” Coal said to the group, carefully keeping watch.  
Mogar made a sound of irritation and gritted out, “the Mad King should know something’s wrong soon…”  
Hilda nodded in acknowledgment, spinning around as she heard voices. “Behind us!” She called.  
“They're coming in front too,” Coal called back.  
“What do we do!?” Vav’s concentration faltered for a second as he spoke.  
“There’s a vent just around the corner. Move!” Rusty suggested.  
“I thought we ruled that out,” Hilda muttered, gripping the sword and keeping watch behind them as they moved.  
“It may be your last hope,” Mogar said grimly.  
They stopped as they reached the vent shaft above their heads.  
“Rusty, other guy, lift Vav up, then we can lift Ray up there and then the rest of us follow,” Hilda ordered them.  
Vav climbed in then, Mogar held Ray up and they worked to get him in there, next Rusty went up, then Coal, then, having returned Mogar's sword to him, Hilda climbed up. She held her hands down to Mogar, “Here, climb up.”  
He shook his head, holding up her hoodie with ORF in it.  
“What?” she asked taking it in confusion.  
“I can hold them off.” He held up the vent cover for her as well.  
“You can come with us...?”  
“They may still trust me, I can buy you time.”  
“I-I don’t…” she stared down not understanding why he was doing this.  
“Go.” he insisted. She nodded then took the covering, closing the opening. She lingered for only a moment before moving on with the others.


	4. I'm just dreaming of tearing you apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some goons are understandably intimidated by Mogar, Hilda is still fucking tired and the answer to last chapter's title is: the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm _still_ doing this. I made some edits, just details, no big plot changes and I fixed some grammatical errors (also I changed the notes if anyone cares).

Mogar sheathed his sword, waiting for the guards to come.  
“M-Mogar?” they froze at the sight of him.  
“The King is looking for you.” one of them spoke out, wondering what he was doing.  
“I know,” Mogar rubbed his ear bitterly, “that’s why I’m here.”  
“So you haven’t seen the escaped prisoners?” another asked.  
“Prisoners? No.” Mogar moved past them, walking down the hall in the direction he knew the Mad King was. They all stood there, seeming confused for a moment before the group of guards more or less dissolved.

“OH THANK GOD,” Vav pushed open the hatch, revealing the sunlit forest around them. He pulled himself out, barely able to keep Ray on his back anymore. Rusty came out behind him, then Coal and Hilda closed the hatch. Vav stretched, leaving Ray on the ground for a moment, and looked around them.  
Then he paused as he realized something, “where’s Mogar?”  
“He stayed behind to hold them off, he said they might still trust him,” Hilda looked at him exhaustedly.  
“What if they didn’t believe him? What if he’s in trouble??” how Vav managed to scrounge up some energy to worry, Hilda did not know.  
“We can’t go back right now Vav, think of Ray. And we wouldn’t last a minute in there like this anyway.” Hilda shook her head, “let’s just get going.”  
“Yeah,” Vav nodded, looking down at Ray who looked so still it was almost like… No, nope, not those thoughts, _let’s not_.  
Hilda gave her hoodie to Vav and squatted down with Coal to get Ray, she groaned as they hefted him up, “we can trade off in a little while," she spoke to the other two.  
They started walking and Vav focused back on slowing Ray down. Looks like it was gonna be another sleepless night.

Mogar turned the corner and let out a breath, the whistle sounded again then. Quickly, he covered his ears and gritted his teeth, yep he was getting closer. When he reached the room, he kicked the door open and sighed in relief as the noise stopped.  
“Aah, I was starting to get worried.” The Mad King smiled as he entered. He gave him a once-over and smiled wider, “I see your interrogation is going well.”  
Mogar looked down at himself in confusion, then saw the blood on his chest. He looked back up, stone-faced, saying nothing.  
“Well, right to business then I see; I just wanted to tell you, you can now kill Vav, we no longer have any use for him if he’s given us all the information we want.”  
“Vav escaped.”  
The Mad King looked up at him like he had suddenly started barking.  
“W-how?”  
“When I left to see you, he somehow escaped his bindings and slipped past me. I assume it also has something to do with your own escaped prisoners.”  
“M-my…?”  
“If I can go now?”  
The Mad King said nothing so Mogar left, slamming the door behind him.

Sitting in the room alone, the door still rattling from Mogar’s exit, the Mad King stared down at his desk skeptically. Something about that story didn’t add up.  
He hadn’t been covered in blood last time he’d been here, yet he’d managed to torture a captive who escaped before he got back, no.  
Standing up, the Mad King opened the door with a bang. Throwing his crown, it landed, sticking in the wall next to Mogar's head.  
“No one betrays me.”

“Hello, what can I do for yo-- Oh! Um, stretcher to the lobby please!!” The hospital secretary called for help over the intercom once she saw Ray.  
The others hurried along with the medics as they pushed Ray quickly to one of the emergency rooms.  
“ _Please!_ Stay in the lobby!!”  
“I’m not leaving him!!” Vav called, forcing his way past.  
“He doesn’t have a pulse!” called out one of the staff as they turned and entered the room.  
“No, no!” Vav called out, “he does it’s just super slow because I slowed him down!! He’s still alive!” he called desperately, a few of them just stared for a moment and Vav felt the sting of tears in his eyes, “J-just please treat his wounds and he should speed back up in a while.”  
One of the doctors finally nodded and they all got to work.  
A nurse walked up to him carefully placing a hand on his shoulder.  
“Sir, I know you’re worried, but it really would be a big help if you could just wait in the lobby for now. We’ll take care of him, I promise.” He nodded, feeling dazed and walked out of the room. He weaved through the bustle in the halls like he was in a trance.  
“Vav!” Hilda called his name, waving him over to where they were waiting in the main lobby.

The bruises across his face and chest hurt enough as it is but he could now barely feel his hands and wrists from the way he was chained to the wall. And worst of all his vision was fuzzing in and out, so he might pass out soon and he couldn't even think of a way to escape.  
The light flashed on suddenly, and he tried to keep his eyes open to see what was happening, but even then he couldn’t see.  
“Feeling sleepy are we?” The Mad King grinned as he entered. His voice grew low, “I think I know how to fix that.”  
He pulled out a knife, stepping closer to Mogar he touched a hand to his lower abdomen, tracing the barely healed wound.  
“Guess we’ll start here,” he muttered, then jabbed the knife in. Cutting himself off before he let out a scream, Mogar hissed out a breath and made a low noise in his throat.  
“Don’t like that?” he twisted the knife. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” yanking it back out finally pulled a yell from Mogar.  
The Mad King turned around, smiling as he wiped the blood from the blade.  
“I’m gonna have a new rug when I’m done with you,” he whispered, savoring the sounds of Mogar’s labored breathing.

**Author's Note:**

> I will continue this but time between updates will not be regular, I can tell you that now.


End file.
